Franz Kafka Quotes
- Mini Bio
- Name: Franz Kafka
- Born: 3rd July 1883, Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)
- Died: 3rd June 1924 Kierling, Klosterneuburg, Lower Austria
- Alma mater: German Charles-Ferdinand University (Prague)
- Occupation: Insurance agent, novelist and short story writer
- Style: Modernism and absurdism
- Height: 5' 11¾" (1.82 m)
- Notable posthumous achievements: His handwritten manuscript of "The Trial" sold in 1998 for $1.98 million U.S. dollars
- Legacy: Renowned as one of greatest writers of the twentieth century
- Personal life: Although he never married he was engaged on 3 occasions to 2 different women: Felice Bauer (twice) and Julie Wohryzek
- Literary conceptualism: The word "Kafkaesque" was created to capture the essence of his writing
- Trivia: He wrote 3 novels and a plethora of novellas. His 3 novels were all published after his death: Amerika was written in 1912 and published in 1927, The Trial was written in 1914 and published in 1925 and The Castle was written in 1922 and published in 1926
"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old"
Franz Kafka"If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it?"
Franz Kafka"I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think"
Franz Kafka"Perhaps it isn’t love when I say you are what I love the most - you are the knife I turn inside myself, this is love"
Franz Kafka"Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie"
Franz Kafka"The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveller"
Franz Kafka"Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form"
Franz Kafka"It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves"
Franz Kafka"In the struggle between yourself and the world, back the world"
Franz Kafka"A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light"
Franz Kafka"The Messiah will come only when he is no longer necessary"
Franz Kafka"To animalise is humane, to humanise is animal"
Franz Kafka'I usually solve problems by letting them devour me"
Franz Kafka"Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable"
Franz Kafka"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us"
Franz Kafka"You can choose to be free , but it's last decision you'll ever make"
Franz Kafka"Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man"
Franz Kafka"Feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity"
Franz Kafka"I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea"
Franz Kafka"I do not see the world at all; I invent it"
Franz Kafka"I have spent my life resisting the desire to end it"
Franz Kafka"Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly"
Franz Kafka"I am a cage, in search of a bird"
Franz Kafka
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Franz Kafka Biography
Bio By: Michael Joseph Farrelly
Franz Kafka was the quintessential literary artist who led a tormented life only to be posthumously immortalised as one of the literary greats of the twentieth century. Yet it was a judgement call by one of his closest friends Max Brod who decided to defy Kafka's death bed wish to destroy all his work and instead publish it for all the world to see and appreciate.
Franz, being a Jew, lived in a time and a place where Judaism was not appreciated, so by association his work could never reach the literary appreciation of that of a German or French writer.
Luckily Max Brod recognised the brilliance and after Franz's death he began to publish his work as did Kafka's former lover Dora Diamant who also preserved some 35 letters and 20 notebooks against his death wish.
His imagination spanned realism and modernism while his creative pen tied them both up in absurdism which yielded elements of gripping fantasy wrapped up in an enigmatic process of thought provoking anti-idealism. His prose was before his time and many literary greats have hailed him as a revolutionary talent that has inspired generations of writers.
The silken ink that flowed from his pen caressed the readers imagination into the intrigue of his stories as if you were almost living it yourself. Such was the visual artistry his pen to paper could create, he was good for a one liner also so here is my compilation of 23 of the best Franz Kafka quotes
Quotes About Franz Kafka
The playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht was in awe of his ominous literature: "Kafka described with wonderful imaginative power the future concentration camps, the future instability of the law, the future absolutism of the state Apparat"
The author Susan Sontag gave this assessment of his influence: "The work of Kafka … has been subjected to a mass ravishment by no less than three armies of interpreters"
The poet W. H. Auden labeled him: "The Dante of the twentieth century"
The author Stanley Corngold was impressed to say: "The way in which he experienced estrangement was literature, with an intensity greater than that of any other writer of this century, more inexorably than Joyce or Proust or Mann"
